Pictures: Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela

Hugo Chávez Dies

Photograph by Leo Ramirez, AFP/Getty Images

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez died Tuesday after a battle with cancer. He was 58 years old.

After his election in 1998, Chávez became known around the globe for railing against the United States, nationalizing parts of his country’s vast oil reserves, and focusing his nation’s spending on the poor. These pictures capture some of the key themes of his presidency. (National Geographic archive: Why Chávez mattered.)

Published March 6, 2013

Oil Man

Photograph by David Fernandez, European Pressphoto Agency

Chávez is seen on a TV screen during an event with oil workers in Caracas in 2008. He was celebrating state-owned oil company PDVSA’s victory over Exxon Mobil in a global dispute over an oil project that Venezuela had seized.

National Pipelines

Hugo and Fidel

Photograph by Juan Seoane, Archivo Latino/Redux

Chávez is pictured with Cuban President Fidel Castro. The socialist and communist leaders grew to be close friends, with Chávez spending months in Cuba receiving cancer treatments in the lead-up to his death.

Published March 6, 2013

Regional Power

Photograph by Jorge Abrego, European Pressphoto Agency

Chávez rides through a crowd with Bolivian President Evo Morales in 2007. The two were announcing that money from Venezuelan oil would fund a huge power plant in Bolivia.

Published March 6, 2013

Stark Disparity

Photograph by Meredith Davenport, National Geographic

Spending generously on his nation’s poor, Chávez built a political support base. Barrio Esperanza rings the high-rise prosperity of downtown Caracas.

Published March 6, 2013

Everywhere a Face

Photograph by Raul Arboleda, AFP/Getty Images

Chávez’s face seemed to be everywhere in Venezuela. An artist copies a portrait of Chávez in Caracas earlier this year, at a time when the leader had vanished from public view as he battled cancer.

Published March 6, 2013

The Opposition

Photograph by Chico Sanchez, European Pressphoto Agency

Venezuelan National Guard officers patrol a street after clashes with protesters opposed to Chávez’s rule in 2004. Last October, the leader had been elected to a fourth term.

Published March 6, 2013

Presidential Palace

Photograph by Ben Speck, Getty Images

Chávez is pictured at the presidential palace in Caracas in 2010.

Published March 6, 2013

Early Portrait

Photograph from Miraflores Press Office via AP

An undated family photo shows a young Chávez.

Published March 6, 2013

Triumphant Return

Photograph by Leo Ramirez, AFP/Getty Images

Chávez raises his arms at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas in 2011 after returning from weeks of medical treatment in Cuba.

Human Rights Watch criticized Chavez's 1999-2013 presidency, saying it was "characterized by a dramatic concentration of power and open disregard for basic human rights guarantees."

The rights group said Chavez enacted a constitution "with ample human rights protections in 1999" but began to amass and centralize power after surviving a coup d'etat in 2002. He grabbed control of the Supreme Court and limited the ability of journalists to report freely, it said.

"By his second full term in office, the concentration of power and erosion of human rights protections had given the government free rein to intimidate, censor, and prosecute Venezuelans who criticized the president or thwarted his political agenda," HRW said.